Page 54 of His to Possess

“That’s an awful lot of money,” she says, returning her attention to me.

“Way more than you’d get for me,” I remind her.

“Not even a comparison,” Angelo adds, backing me up. “I’d be going after Gallo right now if I were you. Get a head start on your boys down there.”

Vixen glances down to see Fury heading toward the bottom of the spiral staircase. I have no idea where Beast is lurking. Meanwhile, Gallo is scurrying off in the opposite direction and I can see Vixen’s clever brain working fast, calculating what her best move will be.

I turn the speaker on and lift the phone in her direction just as the electronic voice comes back on the line and says, “Funds verified.”

“Good luck,” she says, then sprints away from us, clearly heading after Gallo. The power of money and greed always amazes me. Why settle for only $250k when you can have $5 million?

Oh, thank God.My shoulders slump in relief then I grab Angelo’s arm and pull him forward. “C’mon!” We aren’t out of the woods yet.

But the moment we turn the corner, we run right into Beast. The man is huge and daunting, and I can only imagine what happened to him in his past because of the amount of scars that cover his body. Of course, I can only see the visible parts, but I’m sure there are more. The long slashes over his arms, neck and face, must’ve hurt terribly. I’d almost feel bad for him if he wasn’t trying to kill me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice is so deep, almost rusty-sounding as though he doesn’t talk much other than the occasional grunt or groan.

“Leave her alone,” Angelo warns him, moving in front of me again. My heart swells at his fierceness. Even though Beast is a good foot taller than him, Angelo is fearless.My warrior.

“You’re going to want to check your phone,” I tell him and, as if on cue, his cell phone beeps with an incoming message. One that I know is from our handler, Fox.

His dark eyes narrow, but he doesn’t reach for it. Instead, he moves closer, lifting his gun. “You’re coming with me.”

“Like hell she is,” Angelo growls.

“Check your message!” I yell.

Beast lifts his other hand into view, dangling a pair of handcuffs. “Dead or alive. We can do this either way, Butterfly.”

“I just offered $5 million for Carmine Gallo’s capture!” I blurt out. “Do you want that or do you want to sit here and waste your time on me?”

“You’re going to have to go through me first,” Angelo states in a steely voice, looking more formidable than I’ve ever seen before. God, he’s so brave and I want to throw myself in front of him, protect him like he’s guarding me, but he won’t allow it.

The moment I mention five million dollars, Beast reaches for his phone, opens his messages and seems to consider. But, it’s taking him too long.

“Gallo just ran that way,” I say, hoping to get him to change his mind about taking me in. But, Beast hesitates. If I learned one thing about the man, though, it’s that he likes a good challenge. “Vixen just went after him. And I’m sure Fury isn’t far behind.”

I’m hoping by dangling that little fact in his face, he won’t be able to resist.

He finally takes a step back. “It’s your lucky day, Butterfly.”

Then he moves past us and heads back downstairs and into the chaos.

Angelo presses a quick kiss to my temple. “Smart girl.”

“I try,” I whisper. He reaches for my hand and we start down the hallway, ready to get out of here. This place is huge, though, and it takes us a minute to find the main staircase. The moment our feet hit the first step, there’s a popping sound and something whizzes past my head.

Oh, God, a bullet.

“Get down!” I yell, and we both drop to the stairs, flattening our bodies to make ourselves a smaller target.

“Who the hell is shooting?” Angelo slides closer, covering me with his big body. I peer out from beneath his broad shoulder and get my answer.

Gallo is slowly stalking up the staircase. Blood runs down the side of his face and he looks furious. “You bitch,” he seethes.

I don’t see his enforcers anywhere, but I hear shooting coming from a different part of the house and I smell the acrid scent of smoke. All I want to do is get the hell out of here, but now we’re going to have to deal with Gallo.

“You might want to hide,” I tell him, moving out from beneath Angelo, standing up to face the asshole slowly walking up the steps. Angelo gets up, standing right by my side.

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